“Since the beginning of the 17th century a number of banks had been set up in several countries of Northern Europe, partly deposit and transfer banks (Amsterdam 1609, Hamburg 1619), partly note-issuing credit banks (London 1694, Edinburgh 1695, and — to some extent — Stockholm 1656). With the exception of the short-lived bank of John Law all of them were founded in republics or non-absolute kingdoms. For more than a century the idea of setting up a bank had, now and then, occupied the minds of Danish governments, but without results.

In the 1730'ties the prices of agricultural products, Denmark's chief exports, were extremely low. About 1735 new advisers, especially J. S. Schulin and count Fr. Danneskiold-Samsoe, persuaded the king, Christian VI, to counteract the threatening lack of foreign exchange by encouraging direct trade and home manufactures.In order to attain this a new department of trade and manufactures was formed, with the said ministers as presidents. A severe obstacle to the plans of the department was the lack of capital in the country. In order to provide the trade and manufactures of Copenhagen with cheap loans the department planned to establish a bank, and the king soon took an ardent interest in the project. First mentioned in February plans were realised in the autumn of 1736.” (Rasmussen, Kurantbankens oprettelse).